Saturday, August 11, 2012

Summer Fun Idea: Plaster of Paris Paperweights

I needed to buy some Plaster of Paris for another craft in our Summer Activity Jar, and found that I had to buy a very large bucket. Soo... we decided to make paperweights!

It was easy-peasy to prepare. I just followed the instructions on the bucket, using very cold water.

This is the consistency we used.

We quickly poured the plaster into our molds. We found some aluminum pans in the cupboard that worked pretty well. The plaster was initially too wet to hold the weight of the beads and decorations, but after we let it sit in the molds for five minutes or so, we were able to press our embellishments right into the thickened plaster.

We let these harden overnight, then turned them out of the molds and let them dry completely another 24 hours.

We may paint or color them someday, but until then these paperweights are doing their job decorating/holding down papers on my kids' desks.